The other day I was browsing around Youtube while watching a bunch of completely random videos. I found this guy, Skyy John who had a series of really awkward videos that had a seemingly disproportionate number of views versus what actual content what was in the video. In my search to find out what made him popular*, I visited his site to see what he was about.

I was browsing the page when I saw the link at the bottom reading Sign my Guestbook!

Seriously? A guestbook? In 2010?!

Keep in mind, Skyy John’s website is a blog with comments. Additionally, all his content is on Youtube, with comments enabled. He also uses Twitter and Facebook. This guestbook says to all his visitors “I can’t bother to check comments on all these other services, why should I check this?” That mentality shows. He only has one post in the guestbook, and that post is sadder than his grumpy gray site.

The guestbook used to be relevant online. For a long time, web pages were static, you couldn’t easily set up commenting abilities on individual pages like we do now with blog posts. Guestbooks offered the ability for you to go to a site and say “Hey I think you’re cool. Check me out.” Then you could post a link to your site and hope people would check your content out. Also, even if they didn’t post a link, you could get an idea of what kind of people were visiting your website and why.

Now, all the major blogging services have built in comments, or you can easily add comments with a service like Disqus. You can leave relevant information on the page it relates to, rather than outsourcing it to the guestbook. And any webmaster worth his or her salt can set up basic analytics software to figure out who is coming to the site and for what content. There’s no practical reason to use a guestbook.

With all this in mind, a guestbook looks outdated on your site. It shows you can’t keep up with the times online. If nothing else, you have to stay ahead of the social media curve to look cool, let alone stay relevant and communicate with your real friends.

*I eventually realized all his videos are popular because they are about sex and sex and the internet have been hand in hand since the internet was born.

Marcie Barnes comes through again! Apparently, everyone but me thought this weekend is a great time to disconnect from all the electronic insanity that occurs daily online.

The Sabbath Manifesto basically says shut down your technological life from sundown, Friday March 19 until sundown, Saturday March 20. Unless your iPhone is grafted into your hand, I think it’s a reasonable goal. I don’t think I’d be able to do it though, as I need to be purging that day for Social Network Purging Day, and I can’t purge without some for of technological apparatus.

Also, what’s up with the weird parts of the Manifesto such as “07 Drink Wine?” I’m all for a good drink now and then, but part of the Anti-Social media Revolution is that anyone can participate, regardless of their ability to consume alcohol legally or not. I suggest replacing the part that don’t work for you with things you love to do to relax.

Another year comes, and all the geeks of the world jizz their pants for South by Southwest Interactive. It’s the spring break for geeks, a moment for all the technology nerds to get together and learn from one another and descend upon the city of Austin.

While I am admittedly bitter because I cannot attend, another part of me questions all the madness that goes on with the conference. I see my friends tweet nearly everything from a panel. I see the same quote tweeted 6 different ways, making me scrape out what I think the real quote is. Then, I wonder what is the point of them paying to go to the conference and learn this information. Because that’s the point of going to the conference. To learn new tools, techniques and tips to make yourself or your employer more money.

While I love sharing and learning new information, there comes a point where blogging, tweeting and live-streaming every last thing turns into information overload. Worse, why did you pay for all that knowledge, if you were just going to throw it out into the internet where anyone can use it? I’m all for sharing, but there comes a point where you need to decide what’s worth sharing and gaining new connections versus what information to keep to yourself that you can use to monetize.

Another thing that drives me nuts about SXSW: the parties. While I am all about a great party and having fun, if I was paying for a social media manager to attend SXSW, I’d kill them if I knew my money was going to pay for them to drink away everything they learned last night.

Again, this could just be my jaded point of view since I’ve never been there. But, if this much information is leaking to me via the internet, the actual chaos down there must be maddening.

I will continue to stay indoors, away from conferences, waiting patiently for The Great Purger to come to all good boys and girls who have cleaned up their internet lives on Social Network Purging Day.

My friend Marcie Barnes pointed out Social Network Purging Day to me the other day. While the domain name (http://purgingday.com) was not the best choice, I couldn’t agree more with the idea. I wish I had thought of it first, so I could claim the glory. Since I did not though, I will whole-hardedly promote it.

I plan on throwing a small party the day of the 20th. For Social Network Purging Day Eve, I’ll make my list and check it twice to see who’s been naughty, and who’s been nice, and I’ll have an airing of grievances.

I’ve learned about social media contests: you’re more likely to win if you enter. I should know, last year I won an a Nintendo DS game, an iPod Nano, free food, free fair rides, and a bunch of other crap just by tweeting something. If I can do it, anyone can, and you’re more likely to get something cool like an iPad.

So, to teach everyone the valuable lesson to actually try, I held a contest here. Since there were only two entries, I’m going to award each entrant with the first prize: a $10 iTunes Gift Card. That’s $20 in prizes someone else could have easily won. Aren’t you jealous?

Congrats to Jennifer and Christine Choi. I’ll be contacting you to send you your fabulous prizes. Enjoy your new ability to download an album or TV show you’ve been dying for.